New York criminal defense law firm Tilem & Campbell scored a major victory in another New York gun case, this one involving a loaded pistol at LaGuardia Airport. The client, was arrested in LaGuardia airport after he attempted to check a loaded pistol in at the airline ticket counter. The ticket agent called police who arrested him and charged him with Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree under New York’s relatively new gun law that requires a mandatory minimum of 3 1/2 years in prison for possession of a loaded firearm. The passenger who was in New York on business had a license for the pistol; from another state which was not valid in New York State.
The case was resolved last week when the client pled guilty to Disorderly Conduct which is not a crime in New York State and paid $370 in fines and Court costs. The felony charge was dismissed and the client will have no criminal record as a result of the reduction.
Cases such as this are common in Queens which has two busy airports within its borders. Gun laws are very different in New York than they are in most other places in the United States so unsuspecting, law-abiding citizens often get caught in New York transportation hubs such as the local airports.
Tilem & Campbell, senior partner Peter H. Tilem, a former member of the New York County District Attorney’s Office, Firearms Trafficking Unit has a lot of experience with all types of weapons cases and has scored a string of successes in New York gun cases in recent years. Including the outright dismissal of two gun cases. In one such case, Mr. Tilem used the Federal Traveler’s Defense to win the dismissal of a loaded gun charge in the Bronx.
Tilem & Campbell is based in White Plains, New York and handles criminal cases throughout the New York metropolitan area.
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